


Two Burglaries That Pass in the Night

by lirin



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: A few months BBY, Crossover, Gen, POV Alternating, Pre-Rogue One
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29280480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: Jyn's doing the best she can. Mara's doing the Emperor's bidding. For both of them, that means going to a jewelry shop at midnight.
Relationships: Jyn Erso & Mara Jade
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Two Burglaries That Pass in the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



Jyn's calling herself Liana Hallik these days. She bought the fake papers off of a dealer in Edhi six months ago, and having a (temporarily) clean record has been worth every credit she paid.

Next month it will be a half a decade that she's been all on her own. So what if she's reduced to petty theft? Her eight-year-old self would have been horrified, but twenty-one-year-old Jyn doesn't much care. She's doing the best she can. After all, she has only herself to rely on.

\---

Mara's calling herself Arica Pradeux these days, and many other things besides. Sometimes the Emperor tells her what name to use, and sometimes he leaves that up to her judgement. But almost always, as she does the Emperor's bidding, that means leaving her name behind.

But what does it matter? _She_ knows who she is, and the Emperor knows who she is, and they're the only people in Mara's life who matter.

Not that there's much of anybody else in Mara's life. But it's enough.

\---

Jyn's been on Havicek for a week now. She worked for her passage on a mining ship that was supposed to take her further into the Outer Rim, but then the captain decided feeding a human crew was too much work, so he bought a couple of bottom-of-the-barrel droids and kicked the human crew out on this nowhere planet.

So now she's got no money and no job, but she does have ears. And it doesn't take her long to hear about a jewelry shop in the capital whose owners are too cheap to spring for quality droid guards, settling for the most affordable (and slowest) model. Not only that, but her unknowing informants (two argumentative businessmen standing next to Jyn on the intra-atmosphere shuttle to the capital) are under the impression that the shop's owners are funneling profits to Imperial arms dealers.

Jyn doesn't need jewelry—she has the one necklace that she always wears and she doesn't care to add anything to it—but she needs money, and she doesn't mind shooting droids. She doesn't particularly care anymore about the Rebellion versus the Empire, but she might as well target an Imperial supporter as not.

\---

The Emperor spoke to Mara eight hours ago, dispatching her to Havicek. The governor there is laundering money, and diverting it from that sector's usual suppliers to companies that have bribed him for preferential treatment. Mara is to deal with him by whatever means she deems best.

She lands in the planet's capital early in its morning. Heading straight for the main archives building, she finds an out-of-the-way suit where she can slice into a computer without anybody noticing her.

The governor has done his best to hide his tracks, but Mara possesses access codes from the Emperor himself, and there is little that can stand in her way. She quickly ascertains that the governor is involved in the running of half a dozen assorted businesses throughout the capital city, none of which have any official connection to him, yet all of which provide funds to the companies that the Emperor accused of bribing the governor.

All very neat and clean, if it weren't so underhanded. Mara checks her gear and waits for nightfall; she's got some reconnaissance to do.

\---

Jyn cleans her blaster and waits for nightfall; she's going to have to make some noise shooting the droids and she'd rather not do it at a time that anybody's around to overhear. Droids she doesn't mind shooting, but she really doesn't want to hurt sentient beings. 

Most of the beings in the galaxy are just people: they're not evil murderers buying into every word that the Empire preaches, and they're not heroes throwing their lives away in support of the Rebellion. They're just trying to live out their lives as best as they can, like Jyn is. And Jyn figures as long as they leave her alone, she'll leave them alone.

Shortly before midnight, it's as dark as it's going to get and the streets are just about deserted. Jyn makes her way to the back door of the shop and takes a look around for droids. Not seeing any, she risks setting her blaster down for a second to slice her way through the lock. Grabbing it back up, she slips inside, where she once again doesn't spot any droids. They must all be at the front of the store, expecting intruders to come in that way.

She doesn't bother wasting time trying to slice the locks of the plastisteel display cases, but just shoots one of them open. She grabs a few small bracelets and rings—nothing too valuable; she wants items that will be easy to fence and hard to identify as being the specific item that was stolen—and turns to leave.

There's a shadow in the doorway; Jyn had begun to think she'd be in and out without any of the droids catching her, but apparently that was too much to hope for. She raises her blaster, ready to shoot, but then she realizes it's a human woman. She'd really rather not kill a human.

"Don't move or I'll shoot!" she snaps, keeping her blaster trained on the intruder. She's blocking the door that Jyn wants to leave through, but if Jyn can just convince her to move...or to stay still long enough for Jyn to get the front door open...the droids are out there, but maybe she can kill two mynocks with one blaster bolt and sic them on the intruder...

Well, she still has a chance of getting out of this without anyone getting hurt, and she intends to take it.

\---

Mara breaks into the Hofnian restaurant first, as soon as the last employee leaves for the night. Their supply records indicate that the fish they're serving is sourced on-planet and quite cheap, while the menus indicate that it's imported from Hofnia (and quite expensive). She finds one of the fish rolls in the conservator and takes a bite—it's not even good.

She copies the records onto her datapad and leaves the restaurant exactly how she found it (except for the missing fish roll); she doesn't intend to make any moves until she's seen a bit more of what the governor's been up to.

The jewelry store is next, but when Mara gets there she finds a slicing tool already jammed inside the back door lock. Somebody's here before her: the question is, are they friend, foe, or just someone who's coincidentally in the wrong place at the wrong time? Mara holds her holdout blaster concealed at her side as she swings the door open, hoping the view of her holstered blaster will make the intruder think she's unarmed.

"Don't move or I'll shoot!" a young woman exclaims, looking up from a broken display case.

Just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mara decides. "I'm not here for you," she says. She tucks the holdout blaster in the back of her waistband so that she can raise empty hands. "In fact, you can help me."

"Forgive me if I find that hard to believe," the thief says, hands steady on her blaster.

"Did you look into this store before you broke in? Do you know who owns it?"

"A shell corporation that funds Imperial arms dealers."

Mara grins. At least she isn't being held at blaster point by an _incompetent_ thief. "Yes, but...funny thing...it's not funding the arms dealers who are supposed to be supplying this quadrant. And another funny thing...the governor of Havicek is the one supplying the money that funds the store. And he's definitely not using funds that the Emperor allotted for that purpose."

"So you're here because of the governor," the thief muses, not lowering her blaster one whit. "Well, if you think he's an awful person, I see no reason to argue with you."

"And I don't see why you shouldn't be just as appropriate of an owner for these goods that were obtained through ill-gotten means as either the governor or those who bribed him would be," Mara continues. "It will serve him right, and more importantly, discovering the robbery will leave him wrong-footed. It'll make him more likely to make a mistake that I can take advantage of. So I'm not planning on stopping you."

It's at that moment that the cheap droid guards finally make their appearance through the door to the front of the store, apparently intent on doing what Mara just said she wouldn't. Hoping the thief realizes Mara isn't her enemy, Mara grabs her blaster.

\---

It's hard to believe that someone would break into a jewelry shop just to encourage a theft that was already in progress—there ought to be a catch in there somewhere—but Jyn finds the intruder's claims pretty believable. It's not at all surprising to learn that the governor is a criminal. (Most high level Imperials are, Jyn figures.)

Before she can make a decision one way or another, the shop's droid guards show up. Jyn fires a couple of wild shots as she dives behind the broken display case, then fires intermittently, ducking only as far out as she needs to make each shot and then returning to cover before the droids can shoot back. She hears shooting from the other side of the room; the intruder obviously went for her blaster the moment Jyn stopped holding her at blaster point, so now she's lost whatever advantage she'd originally had.

The woman's a good shot, too. Only three shots and the droids stop making noise. Jyn's not sure which way to go; the woman's probably still too close to the back doorway, but she's got her blaster out now and Jyn would be an easy target if she makes for the front.

"I'm still not going to stop you," the woman says in the silence that follows the shooting. "I mean it, you're doing me a favor."

Jyn figures she might as well believe her as not. She stands up and doesn't immediately get shot, so she takes a few more rings from the case. The intruder is standing over one of the guard droids, blaster once again holstered as she connects her datapad to the droid's output port. She doesn't look nearly as bothered by Jyn's presence as Jyn thinks she ought to, considering Jyn still has a blaster and she knows how to use it.

"Okay, I'm leaving now," Jyn says, and steps forward.

"Good luck," the woman says. "The human employees are scheduled to come in at nine, so you might want to be off planet by then. I'll do what I can to wipe any recordings that were taken, though. After all, I don't want my presence noticed either."

"So who are you?" Jyn asks.

"Does it matter?"

"Well," Jyn says with a shrug, "it's not every day a random stranger interrupts my burglary just to shoot the guards off of my back without even taking some of the jewelry for yourself. I think I have a right to be curious."

"I'm a servant of the Emperor," she replies. "You can call me Arica."

Jyn grins, tucks one last piece of jewelry into her pocket, and holsters her blaster. "I don't suppose that's your real name."

'Arica' grins back. "I don't suppose you're in the habit of revealing your real name to strangers you meet in a jewelry store at midnight?"

"Maybe after I've fought on the same side with them," Jyn says. This is the longest conversation she's had with someone she wasn't trying to con in months, and all of a sudden she feels reckless. "My name is Jyn." It's just one syllable; there's likely plenty of Jyns in the galaxy, and the vast majority of them aren't related to Imperial weapons designers. She heads for the door. "Good luck taking down your governor. He has it coming."

\---

Mara studies the layout of the room, deciding which of the jewelry cases she's going to shoot open, and which cases she'll mix some of the unstolen jewelry into—to make it harder for Governor Wrate's flunkeys to determine what's been stolen—as soon as her convenient thief leaves. A plan is already forming in her head: she'll find a way to get inside the governor's mansion in the morning and see how he reacts when the news comes in...the Arica identity is as good as any for that work, but would it be better to present herself as an entertainer—and if so one sent by the Emperor or a freelancer—or should she pretend to work for one of the companies that has bribed him, coming to check in?

"My name is Jyn," the thief says as she prepares to leave.

Mara pauses for a moment from her work on the guard droid. It's been a long time since she told anyone her real name, but...why not? Jyn's sure to be leaving the planet immediately, and they're highly unlikely ever to meet again. If there was ever a time to indulge in a bit of all-too-rare honesty, this is it. "It was nice to meet you, Jyn," Mara says. "Let's make sure it doesn't happen again." Jyn nods and steps out into the night, and Mara takes a deep breath. "My name is Mara," she calls after her. The truth tastes strange on her tongue.

Jyn looks back for a moment, surprised. "Good luck, Mara," she says, and then she's gone.

Mara smiles lightly as she gets back to fuzzing the droid's memory circuits. Whoever Jyn is (and if that's even her real name; she'd lay even odds whether it is or isn't), she hopes she'll make much better use of the jewelry than its former owners ever would have.


End file.
